Sorry if this has been brought up previously, but I don;t remember if it was Selani or someone else, but in game 2 I think his sucker-punches to the back of DeKai's head were far worse than Abbey's hit, given the flagrant malicious intent. Had he dove to the ice, I have to imagine it would have resulted in a similar scenario-- more than a two minute penalty. I just don't understand how a hit that incidentally led to the head as a result of a shoulder/shoulder collision is treated so much more harshly than a punch to the back of a player's head.

Toni Lydman is considered doubtful for Monday's game in Detroit due to a migraine and neck soreness.

Lydman was injured when Detroit's Justin Abdelkader hit him on Saturday, a hit that got Abdelkader a two game suspension by the NHL. Lydman did not practice on Sunday and it would seem that he could be out for at least the remainder of the series. "At this stage, it's hard to tell," coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Toni has headaches and he's got a stiff neck. Bright lights are bugging him. So I don't know when that's not going to be there." Reserve him for now, if you can.

In other words, Lydman got a worse penalty out of this whole transaction than Abby did.

NHL Suspensions are "reactive" remedies parading themselves as proactive measures. If the NHL really tried to police every malicious or gratuitous act in the game, you'd have multiple suspensions per game. The Weber/Z thing last year was bad, but didn't result in injury. Meanwhile, Gryba throws basically a legal body check on Lars Eller, and the league reverse-engineers a rationale for suspending him because the dude ended up in a pool of blood on the ice. Nevermind that much of that was probably from his visor bouncing on the ice and cutting his nose/face.

The system if frequently flawed and imbalanced, but I think that Shanahan is doing the best he can to bring transparency into the process and to establish some type of reliable precedent. I don't think we have a legitimate gripe here.

Nothing there? This is the frustrating thing. They let plays like this go without any supplemental discipline. The game is all but over due to the score, and this is just a cheap play, to the head and nothing happens. Garbage NHL, just garbage

The only thing I don't agree with in this situation is no call being made at the time, by a ref who was three feet away.

Besides that, I'm okay with the rest. A lot of speculation around the rule(s) and interpretation of this hit. Doesn't really matter. He clearly lined him up from at least 20 feet, drilled him at full speed, made contact with his head, and left his feet during the hit (like Michael Jordon type air). The reality is that it doesn't really matter if he left his feet before hit, during, after...if he made contact with head or shoulder first, or how many strides he took before the hit.....whatever. The fact that three elements potentially happened and debatable for a single play/hit....charging, contact with the head, and his feet leaving the ice, you're done. Any of these three happened alone on one hit, he may have avoided suspension, but together it really a easy to see how he got suspended. It's been like this for a while now in hockey, and all the players are very aware of what the league is trying to crack down on. Is it better now than when players could absolutely destroy other players without recourse?...I don't think so. But it IS REALITY. Weber hit??....geez- ancient history. What is Shanny going to give us a mulligan on that one. For our mental health sake, get over it.

Abby should know better. I give him an A+ on willingness to be physical. F for execution. D for intelligence on particular play at that particular time . Full speed, contact with head, leaving your feet....You do that in the playoffs and a guy gets helped off the ice injured....the punishment will be heavy in today's NHL.

Anyhow, I don't want to turn into Ducks fans who only talk about how they get screwed by the refs year-after-year and how they could have 8 Stanley Cups if it weren't for the league and the refs wanting them to lose. As Wings fans, we're so many levels above that. It's done. He nailed a guy. He's out for two. Playoff hockey. Let's tie this beeeaaatttttch up and win it in six.

I don't think it was a terrible hit, but in this day and age, if you leave your feet and the head even looks like it's involved, you're in trouble. Probably for the best, but still hard to stomach. Gotta play smarter as time goes on.

Nobody is taking hitting out of the game, and nobody is penalizing anyone for playing hard and finishing their checks. You just can't recklessly hit guys in the head and/or leave your feet and/or charge. That's it. You hit properly and you're good. I've used this video a thousand times to illustrate how you have to hit in today's game. It's instructive because it's a hard clean hit, without any of the questionable things involved in the Abby hit. Everybody laments the "good" old days when Scott Stevens would roam around head hunting, but to me, this hit (and all hits like it) are the mark of good hard nosed hockey.

The only thing I don't agree with in this situation is no call being made at the time, by a ref who was three feet away.

Besides that, I'm okay with the rest. A lot of speculation around the rule(s) and interpretation of this hit. Doesn't really matter. He clearly lined him up from at least 20 feet, drilled him at full speed, made contact with his head, and left his feet during the hit (like Michael Jordon type air). The reality is that it doesn't really matter if he left his feet before hit, during, after...if he made contact with head or shoulder first, or how many strides he took before the hit.....whatever. The fact that three elements potentially happened and debatable for a single play/hit....charging, contact with the head, and his feet leaving the ice, you're done. Any of these three happened alone on one hit, he may have avoided suspension, but together it really a easy to see how he got suspended. It's been like this for a while now in hockey, and all the players are very aware of what the league is trying to crack down on. Is it better now than when players could absolutely destroy other players without recourse?...I don't think so. But it IS REALITY. Weber hit??....geez- ancient history. What is Shanny going to give us a mulligan on that one. For our mental health sake, get over it.

Abby should know better. I give him an A+ on willingness to be physical. F for execution. D for intelligence on particular play at that particular time . Full speed, contact with head, leaving your feet....You do that in the playoffs and a guy gets helped off the ice injured....the punishment will be heavy in today's NHL.

Anyhow, I don't want to turn into Ducks fans who only talk about how they get screwed by the refs year-after-year and how they could have 8 Stanley Cups if it weren't for the league and the refs wanting them to lose. As Wings fans, we're so many levels above that. It's done. He nailed a guy. He's out for two. Playoff hockey. Let's tie this beeeaaatttttch up and win it in six.

If he was going full speed, his feet would have still been moving. He coasted to the hit. Yes he was going fast, but he wasn't accelerating into the hit.

I actually got around to watching the NHL video just now, and while I agree with the suspension, it's interesting how vague they were about the PPOC on this hit compared to the Gryba/Eller hit. In fact, they didn't mention if they thought the shoulder/elbow hit Lydman's head, even though I think it was a clearer case in this hit that they probably did than it was in the Eller case.

I just don't understand the rationale of fans who think this wasn't a headshot...are they denying that Lydman couldn't get up after the hit? That's he's missing games and has concussion symptoms now? It doesn't matter if the hit to the head was with the shoulder, elbow, or both - that contact was allowed to happen because he lunged upward at a player that he had taken several strides towards.

If he was going full speed, his feet would have still been moving. He coasted to the hit. Yes he was going fast, but he wasn't accelerating into the hit.

How do you jump without accelerating? Isn't that physically impossible? For the people saying that he didn't leave his feet until after the hit, that would still mean that he accelerated through Lydman's upper body.

If he was going full speed, his feet would have still been moving. He coasted to the hit. Yes he was going fast, but he wasn't accelerating into the hit.

He "coasted" to the hit because his feet were already in mid-air. Whatever. My point is when you do all three at once (line a guy up 20 feet out and skate at considerable speed to engage, make considerable contact with players head, and considerably leave your feet)....you are going to get suspended.

I'm surprised so many people are questioning the validity of this suspension. When the play happened in real time my initial thought was "dumb play by Abby, he is going to pay for that." So many problems with this hit. He targeted him from halfway across the ice. Took about ten strides. Lept up. AND then decides to throw his elbow into the mix for good measure. It was a boneheaded play by a guy that makes boneheaded plays from time to time.

As to the official right there not calling a penalty on it. Another poster mentioned that night that the official was probably in disbelief in what he just saw happen because it was so blatantly boneheaded. I tend to agree, see as how I was shaking my head in disbelief. That play sunk us in that game.

The Weber slam, yes, I felt it should have been punished by a suspension, perhaps 1 game, but that really has nothing to do with this hit. I had actually forgotten that play took place with about 1 second left, many people have assumed/reported that it was "after" the game. But that a very different type of play, where two players were already engaged. There was obvious intent to injure by Weber on that play, and it's really more analogous to what Bertuzzi did in '04 than a headshot on a legal check. I don't think we really want to have the discussion about what a thin line there was between what happened to Steve Moore and the thousands of other dirty plays that COULD have resulted in serious injury, without having any more malice aforethought than Bertuzzi had when he was trying to hurt Moore (but probably not trying to hurt him that bad). Crap, look what Sedin just did last night:

But there is ZERO argument that a blown suspension call in last year's Playoffs means that Abdelkader shouldn't be suspended for a clearly suspendable offense this year. I think we can be partisan without being completely irrational.

That's nuts, was there even a penalty?

That is shades of Marty McSorley years ago...but what is that Uncle Gary? We need our stars playing the games...not in the press box? Sedin should get a life ban for this, just like McSorley did.

I actually got around to watching the NHL video just now, and while I agree with the suspension, it's interesting how vague they were about the PPOC on this hit compared to the Gryba/Eller hit. In fact, they didn't mention if they thought the shoulder/elbow hit Lydman's head, even though I think it was a clearer case in this hit that they probably did than it was in the Eller case.

I just don't understand the rationale of fans who think this wasn't a headshot...are they denying that Lydman couldn't get up after the hit? That's he's missing games and has concussion symptoms now? It doesn't matter if the hit to the head was with the shoulder, elbow, or both - that contact was allowed to happen because he lunged upward at a player that he had taken several strides towards.

How do you jump without accelerating? Isn't that physically impossible? For the people saying that he didn't leave his feet until after the hit, that would still mean that he accelerated through Lydman's upper body.

I was taught to hit like Abby did. You don't go for the head, but you're told to crouch for a low center of gravity and lunge upward into the shoulders of chest. Otherwise its just a hard bump.

Only thing I saw wrong with it was Lydman had his head down cause he was trying to do some fancy eurodangling.